Golf Swing Analyzer » Golf Swing Driver

A Haircut from Vinny

admin — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 06:45:28 +0000

“I need a Haircut,” my boyfriend, Brad, declared on Halloween though a cracked bathroom door. Astronomical, I belief, here it comes. Whenever Brad needs a haircut there is an argument lasting anywhere between an hour and a week. I beg him to go to a salon and get what I call a “staunch haircut” by a stylist, and he refuses and attempts to elaborate the benefits of, gasp, a barbershop. I tell him that in a salon he will be treated to a trained professional who will wash, cut, and style his hair to make him hansom AND trendy. He tells me that salons are girly, and that barbershops are where men meet to discuss football and food, and, oh yeah, to get their hair slice. I tell him salon chairs are comfortable and cushy, he tells me that barbershop chairs swivel. He won that argument. I did not have the energy to grovel and the mop on his head proved that a haircut, wherever it was from, was pertinent. Besides, we had a Halloween party to get to and I did not want the scariest part of his costume to be his hair. Well, I thought to myself, even a barbershop haircut cannot possibly be worse than what is currently sitting atop his head.

As we just moved to Montrose, California Brad pulled out his laptop and googled “Montrose” and “Barbershop.” He was immediately rewarded when he located a nearby establishment entitled “The Montrose Barbershop.” The name of the place seemed to fit the bill, so I agreed to go as long as he took me for frozen yogurt afterwards.

We parked down the street and walked up to the front door. Sure enough, “Barbershop” was written in immense red letters across the glass storefront. The inside of the store was not very substantial and reminded me of a classic nineteen fifties shop with red striped chairs, which incidentally did swivel, haircutting and shaving tools against the wall, and mirrors on both sides of the room. Standing behind the glass was an elderly gentleman with a black greasy comb over working on the hair of another elderly gentleman with the same dark greasy comb over, and in the far corner sat an elderly gentleman in a kilt. This was exactly what I expected. I turned to Brad to say “I told you so” in as nice a way as possible, but to my surprise he seemed completely satisfied with the shop and happily strode through the door. I took a deep breath, caught the door behind him, and followed behind.

“Do you have time for one more today? ” Brad inquired to greasy comb over number one.

“I am unbiased finishing up this here, and then I will do you, Okay? ” He replied in a thick Italian accent.

“Great.”

Brad and I sank into the sticky leather chairs lining the wall and flipped through the stack of old magazines piled next to us. I passed over Field and Stream, Sports Illustrated, and Golf Digest to narrate Montrose Magazine. I began leafing through the local publication in hopes of learning more about our original community while greasy comb over number two thanked the barber and headed out. Brad’s turn.

“Okay, you arrive sit. I am Vincenzocallmevinny.” He smiled broadly and then gestured to us.

“Brad.”

“Danielle.”

“Okay. This is very long. You want shorter? ” He asked as Brad sat down in the swivel chair.

Brad chuckled, “Yeah, it’s getting long. You can engage a lot off.”

Vinny began his work. He concentrated closely on the encourage of Brad’s head and delicately snipped off bit by bit. The care he put into cutting Brad’s hair impressed me. Maybe I was heinous about barbershops. He seemed confident in his craft and potentially would even give Brad a great haircut.

“You know why barbers are great drivers? ” Vinny asked.

“Uh, no? ” Brad and I looked up in curiously.

“Because they know all the short cuts!” He broke out into deep riotous laughter.

The man in the kilt followed along to fabricate a bellowing symphony. Brad and I smiled and chuckled, it was hard not to laugh. The whole scene was comedic.

“That is what we call a barber joke. I have them for all occasions.” Vinny informed us.

“That is a good one,” I told him, “Do you have any for Halloween? “

Vinny thought for a moment, and then began telling an elaborate tale about a taxi driver and a nun. We spent the next half hour listing to Vinny and the man in the kilt rattle off their celebrated jokes. I half listened and half read the magazine. It described places and events in Montrose that I never expected. Apparently there was a raging river near town, mountain biking and hiking, and even a huge cowboy style saloon. I realized something had to be wrong when I came across an article about the winter snow activities. Turning the magazine over I found on the back cover an address in Montrose; Montrose, Colorado that was. I chuckled to myself. Poor Vinny, I wondered if he even knew. At this point Vinny was still slowly clipping away at the back of Brad’s head which was now significantly shorter than the front.

Vinny was not unprejudiced a comedian, he was also a narrator, and moved from his jokes into a romantic personal biography. He informed Brad and me that he was born in Italy and moved to the United States with the Merchant Marine in search of his father. He spoke of all the family he uncovered in Manhattan and with them, as he put it, “what anyone would assume a large Italian family in Manhattan was up to.” He told tales about the war, about traveling the world, and about his epic search to find his father. Vinny told us his story for an hour as he continued shaping the back of Brad’s head.

Although Vinny’s yarn was arresting, we had been in the barbershop for about an hour and a half and I was eager to head home and come by ready for our Halloween party. I closed my magazine about a small town in Colorado, and glanced down at my watch, hoping he would get the hint. Finally, he concluded his work on the back of Brad’s head and moved to the front. I figured we were stuck for at least another hour. To my surprise Vinny glanced at the inches of hair hanging in front of Brad’s face and clipped a speedily straight line above his brow. He then set down the scissors. At this point I grew concerned. Next, Vinny reached for a huge bottle of hair gel. This was the point where Brad grew concerned. The poor boy has an unnatural fear of hair products. Vinny smeared the goo in his hands, slapped it onto Brad’s head, and then created a elegant part way of to the right side. Brad was mortified. I desperately attempted to hold back my laughter as Vinny spun Brad around to sight his search for in the mirror. And there, staring back at us all, was Hitler.

It was an unmistakable Hitler haircut. I thought Vinny was going for an old fashioned and clean cut look, but definitely ended up with German Nazi. And what could we say? Really, what could either of us say but, “thank you Vinny, it looks great.” The guy was so proud of his work, he told us jokes and his life story. So when he told Brad the total was twenty dollars, Brad smiled and gave him twenty-five. We shook Vinny’s hand, and waved as we walked out the door.

As soon as the door closed tedious us I exploded with laughter. A police officer on the street stared at Brad’s hair and chuckled. Good thing he is laughing, I thought, and then realized it was also a good thing that he was not a real police office. He was dressed in a cop Halloween costume with “cop” embroidered on the chest. Brad tried his best to mess the hairstyle up by tousling his hand through his hair. The piece was gone, and he looked less like Hitler, but still completely ridiculous. I made poor Brad keep his promise and obtain frozen yogurt before allowing him to head home and cower in the bathroom.

As he stared at himself in the mirror I told him that we could go to a salon tomorrow and get a professional to fix it. He could not wait that long. He plunged his hand into the back of the cabinet and retrieved an electric shaver. Oh no. No, no, no. This was going to be a disaster. I refused to participate in the butchery of his already butchered hair, and watched in terror as he ran the shaver over his head. He got the front shorter, but it was now uneven with the back. He needed my help. Against my better judgment I took the shaver and went to work on the abet of his head. I did my best, but as I never used a shaver before, I accidentally nicked a small bald spot. My attempts to even it out were unsuccessful, and I ended up shaving a large L shaped patch into his head.

Hey, I thought, at least next time I will win the barbershop versus salon argument.

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Memoirs of a Beginning Golfer Part One – Getting Started

admin — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 19:49:28 +0000

Why Golf?

“Why golf? ” my friend inquired. I could have responded with “I’m 57, and golf seemed like a safer choice than hang-gliding or surfing (I don’t swim).” The simple answer, however, is that was the most logical choice. We’ll examine that choice, but first, a microscopic personal background.

As a youngster I played first baseman on a little league baseball team. Since we lived in a diminutive town in North Dakota where there wasn’t distinguished else to do, it’s a good thing I enjoyed playing baseball. In high school (larger town), I played basketball, ran the mile in track, and bowled in both a school league and a men’s league. In Minnesota, I bowled in both a men’s and a coed league, and was an official score keeper for bowling tournaments. In Colorado, I played coed softball, pitched a lot of horseshoes, and spent many happy hours hiking in the mountains, accompanied by my best friend – my Nikon camera.

Now I’m in Seaside, a resort town on the north Oregon coast, where I own and operate a small gift shop. I consume about 80 hours per week in my store, so I needed an activity I could more easily adapt to my schedule. I tried walking on the beach, but although the beaches here are shapely, they really don’t excite me.

Golf was the logical choice because it provides me the walking exercise I wanted, and I can do it in the morning before I originate up my shop. Unlike most team sports, golf can be enjoyed year-round (weather permitting). It also affords me the opportunity to indulge in one of my life-long passions – data collection and analysis.

I was in a sporting goods store last August, and noticed they had a price reduction on some of their golf clubs. I decided that my timing was fortuitous, purchasing a #1 driver, a 5 iron, and a putter. About a week later, on a business trip in Colorado, I had some time to kill near Grand Junction, and I decided to investigate the availability of local driving ranges.

My First Bucket of Balls

I opted for the substantial bucket. Developing muscle memory is all about repetition – I’ve found that to be the case in all of my sporting endeavors. With a ball on the tee, I grabbed my #1 driver, then took a practice swing. Seemed okay, so I moved closer and prepared to hit the ball for the first time. I had already decided not to use a full swing, so hit the ball with about 2/3 power. It went a little past the 100 yard market, most of that on the ground. The next two balls I topped, followed by a hook to the left. Ball number 5 was similar to #1. Ball 6 was an important lesson, though purely by accident – the ball traveled further in the air.

Addressing the Ball

After ball six, I held the club next to the ball, and noticed how the angle of the club face as compared to the vertical plan through the center of the ball would change slightly depending on whether the center of my body was aligned with that plane, or whether I was a little forward of behind the ball. Because I had been standing slightly forward, my first balls went more downward than they should have, and since the angle on the face of a #1 driver is not designed for hitting the ball very high in the first place, that was an indispensable lesson learned.

Club Size

Okay, here’s the thing – golf clubs get shorter as you progress from #1 to #9, and the head of a #1 driver is considerably larger than that of a 5 iron. On my #1 driver, you can hit the ball a half inch off center and unexcited do okay – the same cannot be said of the irons. Also, with the driver, I had been hitting off a tee; the iron was used with the ball on the ground. I topped the first two balls, the third hitting the outer edge of the club and departing at about a 30 degree angle. Another tiny fraction of an waddle and I might have hit one of my fellow golfers (though fortunately the driving range was sparsely populated in that early evening). Being mindful of the golfing exploits of a former vice-president, I thought to myself, “What am I doing wrong? ” The answer was quick in coming – muscle memory. I realized that because I am a colossal person, I would have to adjust my posture while swinging the 5 iron.

Keeping Your Peruse On the Ball

The other thing I realized was that I would have to focus my attention on the ball while swinging, and to continue that focus until the ball left the tee. I noticed that focusing also seemed to support the ball go straighter – with not as many hooks or slices.

The Practice Green

I spent an hour on the practice green, attempting long putts and the shorter leftovers. My theory was that more often than not, I would have a lengthy putt to attempt, and in order to keep my gather lower, would have to hope to limit myself to 2-putt holes. I discovered that on a putt of 25 to 30 feet, it wasn’t easy to get closer than 3 feet, and therefore avoided a somewhat testy 2nd putt. The pros make putting look easy, but I’ll bet that’s accomplished via many, many hours of practice.

Return to the Range

Before my second outing at a driving range, I obtained a #3 driver and a pitching wedge. I was actually hoping for a #9 iron, but the store I was at had no cheaper #9s available. The face angle is not much different, and anyway, I’m a beginner, not a finesse-shot golfer. My second bucket of balls went much better than the first, plus an increase in confidence about hitting the ball allowed me to increase the power of my swing. My distance with #1 driver edged pasted the 150 yard marker. I also famed the arcs of the balls with the various clubs, and also what happened if I hit the ball improperly, especially if I topped.

I hit several more buckets of balls during September before deciding it was time to try it for real. I also started wearing a glove on my left hand. I have mild arthritis in that hand. The glove improves my grip, which in turn helps the ball go straighter. We’ll accumulate to that eventful day in Part 2 – first, let’s review what I learned about golf.

#1 – If you check around, you don’t necessarily need to spend a fortune on clubs.

#2 – Practice is essential for muscle memory, which helps develop consistency.

#3 – You must address the ball properly.

#4 – You must bear focused concentration on the ball as you swing.

#5 – When the ball hits the sweet spot on the #1 driver and goes over 200 yards (straight), that’s a golden memory.

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Tips to Improve Your Golf Game

admin — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 08:58:03 +0000

Golf is a game that is easy to understand, but difficult to master. So much goes on during a golf swing, it’s hard to know what to do, and what not to do. People exercise lots of money on novel clubs, gadgets that promise you you’ll lose 5 strokes, in order to better understand the golf swing, but they’re really just confusing them selves further. What these people don’t understand, is that some of these devices can attend you, but without your swing being good, they aren’t going to support that much. If you try to work around a faulty swing, then as soon as you fix one plight, you suddenly have two more to fix, and the circle continues. It is aesthetic hard to improve this way, and only leaves you frustrated. It’s best to learn the swing from the ground up.

Learn your fundamentals. Fundamentals are the first thing that you learn when you first start playing golf. The fundamentals are: Grip, alignment, stance, and posture. I like to assume of it as G.A.S.P. That’s an easy way to remember it, so don’t forget it.

Grip, is how you grip the club. There are three grip styles: The Interlocking grip, which is the most popular. The Overlap or Vardon grip, which is the second most common, and the least common is the Ten Finger, or Baseball grip. There is also two more aspects to the grip as well. There is a Strong grip, a Neutral grip, and a Weak grip. There is also grip pressure to take into account.

I’ll start with the interlock grip. With the interlock grip, the pinkie on the accurate hand interlocks with the pointer finger of the left hand, and then the fingers curl around the grip. Try that, without a club in your hand. Both thumbs should more or less, be pointing downwards. I deem this has more power potential, due to the enhanced stability you get with this over the other two grip styles.

The Overlap(Vardon)grip, is almost the same as the interlock, except the pinkie on the right hand overlaps the index finger of the left hand, instead of interlocking with it. To practice this, make a fist with your left hand. Then lay the pinkie on your right hand over the index finger on your left hand. This is the overlap. I’m not valid big on it, cause I feel that it doesn’t construct your hands “one piece” like the interlock does.. However if you like it, go with it. This grip is broad for players with large hands.

the last grip typs is the Baseball(10 finger) grip. To do this, manufacture a fist on both hands, and then bring the pinkie on the upright hand, together with the index finger on the left hand. Nothing should be interlocked, or overlapped with this grip. This grip is best used for players with small hands

The second aspect to the grip, is a Strong Grip, a Weak Grip, and a Neutral grip. A Strong grip means your hands are turned more to the left on the grip, and a Weak grip is turned to the just more. A Neutral grip, is a grip that is not turned to the left or the true, it is in the middle, neutral. Fill it or not, this makes a mountainous disagreement to where your ball will end up. A Strong grip, will befriend the ball to Hook, while a Weak grip, and Neutral grip, will encourage a straight, or Slice ball flight. You must play around with all three, to rep out what works best for you. Yes, you can use a different one for your irons, wedges, or woods. I use a Neutral grip for irons, and a Strong grip for my woods. Go with what makes you feel comfortable.

When using a wood or driver, I recommend that you use a Strong grip. The Strong grip allows you to release your wrists completely, through impact. It is the natural position that your hands want to be in. To point to this, grab a bat, and swing it as hard as you can at a tree or something. Now look at your hands. They have turned to the left, so that you can deliver the most powerful possible blow to the ball. The reason behind this, is that when you are trying to deliver a powerful blow to something, the butt of your left hand naturally wants to be leading. It’s the same with the golf swing. When using the Strong grip, the thumb on your moral hand, should be pointing in the 11 o’clock position, on the grip. Imagine that there’s a clock on the top of the grip. Point your thumb at 11 o’ clock.

The placement of the left thumb is also important. How you place your thumb on the grip, can affect where your ball goes. Whenever you grip the club, your instinct is to place the thumb on top of the grip near your index finger. It feels tighter on the shaft, but it really isn’t. It will encorage cupping of the left wrist, and the dreaded slices! The moral placement of the left thumb is just slightly to the side away from the knuckle of the index finger. The reason for this is because it acts as the primary pressure point that the left hand has on the abet extinguish of the shaft. When you get to impact, you want the pressure you are applying to be behind the shaft pushing forward, not on top of the shaft pushing down

If you just make a backhand motion with your thumb on top of the shaft, your shots will be used, and you won’t be able to control the club. Now your natural inclination is to rotate your forearm so that the thumb is behind the club at impact. That opens up your club face, and causes push slices. It is a mistake, i see all to often, and scosts you strokes around the course.

You can look at your backswing for more proof too. If you just grip the club with your left hand, and assign your thumb on top of the grip, and bring the shaft straight up, over your upright shoulder, you’ll notice that your forearm is at an angle, and your thumb doesn’t encourage the club. This leads to you cupping your left wrist at the top, and an open club face at impact.

The last aspect to the grip is grip pressure. You want to hold the club just tight enough, so that you won’t throw it, but loose enough, so that it’s comfortable. Think of it as holding a valuable artifact. You don’t want to occupy it so hard, it breaks, but you don’t want to hold it so loose, that you drop it, and it shatters. Same thing here. You really want your whole body to be loose, nothing should be strained.

It’s also very important to keep the pressure the same, throughout the whole swing. You are naturally going to tighten up a little more, on the downswing, but make sure you’re loose everywhere else. The reason you want to have the club loosely, is so you can hinge, and unhinge your wrists completely, and expeditiously. So many people think that by holding the club tightly, it makes the ball go further. This is absolutely fallacious. Loose muscles are fast muscles. Any tension in your body will do nothing but rob you of power, accuracy, and distance. Be loose, be in control

Alignment is also very important. When you address the ball to hit it, your shoulders, hips, knees and feet should all be pointing parallel to your target. That means beside it, not at it. Being twisted or a limited twisted, will cause inconsistency, and that’s not good at all, is it? Make sure that your feet are pointing parallel to your target, and that you hips, and shoulders are level, and also parallel to your target. Also check that your club face is pointing at your target. An exception to this, is when you are trying to hit a Hook or Slice.

A cool alignment tool, you can use, is divots, left late by other golfers. To aim using a divot, get behind the divot, and peek where it’s aiming to. Once you find one that aims where you want the ball to go, you just line up with the divot, and swing away. This works because it is mighty simpler to line up with a target that is three inches away, than a target that is 150 yards away. So you are making it much easier on yourself by aiming this way. This will also work from some fairway shots too, but understand, that there won’t always be divots to help you.. More than once, I have gone through a whole round of golf, without ever once seeing a usable alignment divot, so it’s good to know how to align the traditional way as well. Keep this in mind, however, because you never know when you will be able to utilize it.

The stance is something your going to have to experiment with, because regardless of what Mr. Joe Pro golfer told you, there is no set width. People come in all shapes and sizes, and so do stances. Shoulder width is as far as you want to go. Having a stance any wider, will limit your shoulder turn, and rob you of power. However, the wider you are, the more stable you are. Having a narrower stance than that, allows you to turn more, but it makes it harder to remain balanced, and can cause other problems as well.. So both are really a double- edged sword, and this is why you must experiment to explore what works best for you.

The Posture is how you look at address to the ball. You should have your knees bent comfortably, your back straight, a bend at the hips, weight balanced between both feet. Also, If you watch PGA events on TV, you’ll notice the players stick their butts out dazzling far. The reason they do this, is because it helps keep their back straight, and helps keep them stable. Your larger players do this more than skinnier ones. To earn a proper posture, first check that your grip, alignment, and stance are right. Then stick your butt out, and bend straight from the hips. Resist the urge to bend your back upwards a bit more. This causes your help to be not straight, and may cause a harmful result when you hit the ball. Now bend your knees a little bit. Assign most of your weight on your heels. You should now have good posture. Check yourself in the mirror to make sure that you look right, and your abet is straight.

The Short Game is the game from 100 yards in, and it’s the zone where strokes are saved or lost. It consists of chipping, pitching, or flopping onto the green, and then putting the ball into the hole. Sounds easy, but it isn’t.. This takes time to master. The best thing to do here, is to spend a few hours a week at the chipping range, and practice chipping, and pitching from long distances, and short distances as well. It is also important to learn to control how great move you put on the ball. Spin can also be used to bring the ball closer to the hole. Being able to stop the ball immediately, or back it up a bit, is a valuable skill to learn. The only way to learn this skill though, is to practice.

Also spend a few hours working on your putting as well. Practice putting from different distances, and different lies. Try putting off the fringe too, as you till collect yourself in that situation eventually. When putting from 20 feet or more, acquire it your goal to get the ball within a 4 foot circle of the pin. Don’t aim for the pin, aim for an area. That makes aligning much easier, and you won’t feel so great pressure. Unless your lie if bad, if your within 20 feet, I try to glean it in the hole, but be sure that your balls misses safely, and doesn’t roll off the back of the green.

I’ve known so many people, who played with standard length clubs, even though they were clearly to long. Now see, here is what angers me about this.. The average person has not gotten taller over the last 20 years,but yet, clubs keep getting longer, and longer.. 20 years ago, the average length for the driver was 42″ long. These days, standard can mean 45″ or more in length! In the case of Taylormade, or Nike clubs, it can be as much as 47″! Now, we got irons that are too long, and people who try to hit them!

Many people believe that a longer club means longer distance.. Well, that’s sort of right.. Only if you hit the club in the sweet spot, every time, will you gape a inequity in distance. The gain is only about 3 yards for every 1 trip.. So is it really worth it? Would you rather be 300 yards, in the woods, or 280 yards in the fairway? That’s what getting a shorter club does for you. You may lose a miniature distance, but you fetch accuracy, and that is key to good golf. Accuracy, not distance. Distance is just a bonus. Chances are, that you will secure some yards, since you are now hitting the sweet spot more often. So, get fitted, and help yourself out in the long bustle.

The best advice I can give you, is to get a few lessons. Getting lessons doesn’t mean your a beginner, even the pros have swing coaches! A good pro can show you proper fundamentals, and can record your swing, so that you can better understand what your doing immoral, and how you can fix it. Lessons are good for understand the basics of the swing. Once you have those down, everything else becomes much easier to learn. I have explained most of this stuff to you in this article, but nothing can compare with seeing it for yourself, and having someone show you the right steps. Getting lessons are a bit expensive, but they pay for themsleves in the long run. Just assume of the money you’ll save, when you no longer hit balls into the water hazards, or slice them out of bounds.

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